Structural Vulnerabilities by Design: An Institutional Analysis of Zhengzhou's Multi-Level Warning and Risk Communication System Prior to the 2021 Urban Flood of China

Ma Wangling

doi:10.47134/jees.v3i3.1196

Authors

Ma Wangling Thammasat University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.47134/jees.v3i3.1196

Keywords:

Institutional Design, Early Warning Systems, Risk Communication, Structural Tensions, Urban Flood Governance, Zhengzhou of China

Abstract

The design of multi-level warning and risk communication systems is a critical but analytically underexplored dimension of urban flood governance. Using a qualitative institutional document analysis design, this study reconstructs how Zhengzhou's warning and risk communication system was formally structured to function across eight governance levels (L1–L8) prior to the extreme rainfall event of July 2021. Drawing on the Emergency Response Law, national meteorological regulations, and the Zhengzhou Municipal Urban Flood Control Emergency Plan, the study identifies four structural tensions embedded in the institutional design. First, the "Tiao-Kuai" divide between warning issuance and emergency response activation as institutionally separate systems. Second, the gap between framework-level contingency plans and the operational precision required by extreme events. Third, long vertical transmission chains combined with insufficient horizontal coordination mechanisms. Fourth, the absence of institutionalized public feedback loops from the receiving end of the communication chain. These tensions did not individually determine system failure, but together constituted specific institutional pressure points that shaped the conditions under which governance capacity would be tested under extreme climate stress. These findings contribute to understanding how institutional design in hierarchical governance systems can embed structural vulnerabilities that remain latent until activated by extreme events, offering direct implications for flood governance reform in Chinese cities and rapidly urbanizing contexts across the Asia-Pacific region facing intensifying climate risks.

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